By Joe Maniscalco

Maybe they thought nobody was watching? 

A year after seizing control of the DC37 Retirees Association and suspending officers opposed to the ongoing Medicare Advantage push in NYC, the American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees—under the auspices of Administrator Ann Widger—has begun pumping out letters declaring the Retirees Association’s sudden and miraculous opposition to legislation aimed at protecting Traditional Medicare benefits.    

By Joe Maniscalco

It was déjà vu all over again this week in NYC when the head of the Municipal Labor Committee [MLC] once more fired off another letter to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams warning her that legislative efforts to protect the Traditional Medicare benefits of 250,000 municipal retirees “should not be permitted to proceed.”

By Ryn Gargulinski

Greed. Lies. Betrayal. Rage. While these sound like great ingredients for a soap opera or action thriller, they are less than ideal for real life. Yet they are the key components in the real-life fight New York City retirees are waging against being shuttled into the aptly nicknamed Medicare Dis-Advantage Plan.

By Joe Maniscalco

UFT President Michael Mulgrew wants members of the New York City Council to introduce and pass new legislation giving hard-working paraprofessionals a sorely-needed $10K salary boost.  But hold on, if those same City Council people are treating pending legislation protecting the Traditional Medicare benefits of municipals retirees like an ugly green hunk of Kryptonite—why are they rallying behind this effort?

By Adrian Spencer

East River Landing, once a beacon of affordable housing, is in now in crisis

East River Landing, a Mitchell-Lama cooperative in East Harlem, has long stood as a symbol of affordable housing for working families. Established in 1974 by Local 1199 Drug and Hospital Workers’ Union (now 1199 SEIU), the cooperative was designed to provide safe, affordable homes for its members. Today, it houses 1,594 apartments, many occupied by union retirees and their families. However, under Metro Management Development Company and its principal officer David Baron, this beacon of affordability is now a flashpoint for mismanagement, neglect, and frustration.

By Steve Wishnia

Frustrated after eight months of fruitless negotiations to reach their first union contract, professional and clinical home health-care workers in Rochester have voted to authorize a strike of up to three days long.

By Joe Maniscalco

We now know that the head of the union representing more than 40,000 New York City Transit workers is officially out. Former TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis resigned under pressure last week, amidst ugly allegations of “inappropriate sexual behavior” and outrageous abuse of power.

But why just now, many rank and file members wonder—when these kinds of complaints have been swirling around for years?

By Ray Rogers

It’s Time to End New York's Multi-Billion-Dollar Stock Transfer Tax Rebate To Wealthy Wall Streeters

While infrastructures throughout New York State are crumbling and critical public services are grossly underfunded or non-existent, the message for years emanating from the offices of Gov. Kathy Hochul, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins is "now is not the right time." Well, maybe now is not the right time for them but most certainly it is the "right time" for millions of suffering New Yorkers.

By Bob Hennelly 

For years now, members of Congress and 9/11 WTC advocates have been rebuffed in their bid for the records maintained by the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations about what they knew and when they knew it regarding the deadly air in lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

By Steve Wishnia

Doctors at seven of New York City’s public hospitals have voted to ratify the tentative contract agreement reached Jan. 13, but physicians at three others voted to reject it, the Doctors Council SEIU announced Jan. 27.

By Joe Maniscalco

“Out sick—or just “out” period?

TWU Local 100, the union representing New York City Transit workers, says embattled President Richard Davis is currently “out sick until further notice. But opponents of the recently re-elected union head contend he’s done and the International is taking over.

By Steve Wishnia

Doctors in the New York City Health + Hospitals system reached what their union called a “groundbreaking new contract” agreement Jan. 13—but a group of members is urging a vote against ratifying the tentative deal, saying it doesn’t do enough to address the system’s “physician staffing crisis.”

By Joe Maniscalco

A delegation of New York City Municipal retirees and supporters fighting back against ongoing efforts  to push 250,000 former civil servants into a profit-driven Medicare Advantage health insurance plan emerged from a meeting with Council Member Erik Bottcher on Friday with arguably the most clear-eyed assessment of the ongoing crisis delivered thus far.

By Joe Maniscalco

Whether you rightly want to it gall or chutzpah, the corporate profiteers peddling Medicare Advantage health insurance plans to retirees across the country have once again revealed just how craven and hollow inside they really are with their preposterous new ads promising recipients $900 grocery allowances.

By Bob Hennelly

On this episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we dedicate the entire show to Mayor Eric Adams’ push to start encrypting NYPD radio traffic, which has up to now been accessible to both the public and the news media in real time.

By Steve Wishnia

Doctors at four of New York’s 11 public hospitals have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike after more than a year of futile contract talks.

The vote at Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital in the Bronx, Queens Hospital Center, and South Brooklyn Health, announced Dec. 19, was 97% in favor of a possible walkout, the Doctors Council SEIU said. The union represents more than 2,500 doctors at the ten hospitals where New York City Health + Hospitals has contracts with affiliates to hire them.

By Joe Maniscalco

The ugly confrontation between NYPD officers and striking Amazon drivers outside the corporation’s DBK4 Distribution Center in Maspeth, Queens last Thursday continues a long history of law enforcement clamping down hard on labor uprisings across the United States.

So, what happens next? And how should the House of Labor react? 

By Joe Maniscalco

The New York City council member championing a bill to protect the Traditional Medicare benefits of retirees from privatization this week rejected the idea that it’s okay for his colleagues to continue sitting around and letting the courts decide what happens next.

By Steve Wishnia

New York State’s highest court on Dec. 17 unanimously ruled that the city must pay for traditional Medicare for its retired employees and can’t offer them only a private Medicare Advantage plan.

By Steve Wishnia

New York City Councilmember Christopher Marte (D-Manhattan) is lead sponsor of the bill that would require NYC to continue offering retired municipal workers traditional Medicare plans, instead of switching them to for-profit Medicare Advantage plans—but none of his 17 colleagues in the Council’s Progressive Caucus have signed on as cosponsors.